Façade cladding options: how to choose a look

Inlife material teamUpdated 8 November 20266 minute read

Choose façade cladding by how the building is seen. From the street, pick the look that reads at that distance. Match its scale to the massing, and its grain to the building's lines. Clay suits broad planes, stone-look gives depth, PU stone adds relief, and timber adds line. Decide the main field first, then one accent.

Clay Textures

Clay Stone Finish (Travertine, Slate, Granite)

Flexible Brick

Polyclay Cladding

Start with the street, not the sample

A façade is seen from the pavement, the gate and the opposite side of the road, almost never from arm's length. So the first question is distance. A fine texture that looks rich in your hand can disappear at that range. A bold relief that feels heavy on a sample board can be exactly what holds a long elevation together.

Work in three distances. From across the street, you see colour, tone and the overall pattern of light and shade. From the gate, you see the texture and the size of each unit. At the door, you see the edge, the joint and the detail. Choose the look for the longest distance first, then check it holds up at the shorter ones.

Four families cover most briefs. Clay looks, such as clay textures and clay stone finish, give flat, earthy planes. You can see the overview of clay wall cladding before you narrow down. Stone-look and PU stone, such as PU stone panels and 3D stone panels, give relief and shadow. Timber looks, such as natural wood cladding and exterior timber tubes, give direction and line.

The four looks, side by side

The table compares look, format and where each is shown. It says nothing about how a material behaves over time, because that is not what decides a first selection. Read it as a map of what each family is for.

	Clay looks	Stone-look and PU stone	Timber looks
Products	Clay textures, clay stone finish, flexible brick, polyclay cladding	PU stone panels, 3D stone panels	Natural wood cladding, exterior timber tubes, exterior fluted panels
How it reads	Flat, earthy planes in textured or stone-like tones	Deep relief with strong shadow lines	Strong direction: horizontal boards or vertical lines
Format shown	Clay textures and clay stone finish in 4 x 2 ft and 8 x 4 ft sheets, 2.5 to 5 mm; flexible brick as 240 x 60 mm slips; polyclay in 120 x 60 cm panels	PU stone panels 20 to 110 mm deep depending on the pattern; 3D stone panels as narrow stone strips on a panel, 150 x 600 mm	Wood cladding as boards 3660 mm long, grooved, ruff-sawn, woodsman or shingle; timber tubes 40 x 60 mm, 2900 mm long; fluted panels 219 mm wide, 2.9 m long
Shown for	Elevations, compound walls, curves and columns	Elevations and boundary walls	Façades, entrances, outdoor rooms, screens and pergolas
Designs shown	Clay textures 40, clay stone finish 64, polyclay 23	PU stone 88, 3D stone 19	Wood cladding 20, timber tubes 5, fluted 10

Use the table to shortlist two families, not one. The difference between them is easier to judge on a real sample than on paper.

Read the building's massing

Massing is the big shape of the building: how much of it is one plane, how much steps forward or back. The cladding should follow that logic, not fight it.

A large, plain plane takes a plainer surface. Clay textures or a clay stone finish work here because the eye can travel across without being stopped. Put a heavy relief on a very long wall and it reads as repetition. Put the same relief on a short, projecting block and it reads as a feature.

Where the building is broken up into volumes, give each volume one material and let the change of material mark the change of form. A stepped front with clay on the recessed parts and PU stone on the projecting block is easy to read from the street. Mixing three looks on one small plane is not.

Curves and columns need a flexible look. Flexible brick, clay and polyclay are all shown for curves, columns or compound walls, so a rounded corner or a gate pier need not force a change of material.

Follow the building's lines

Every façade already has lines: slab edges, window heads, a parapet, a canopy. Cladding either agrees with them or cuts across them.

Horizontal lines. Long slab edges and ribbon windows ask for a horizontal grain. Timber boards run lengthwise, or stacked stone strips, extend the line.
Vertical lines. Tall narrow openings and deep fins ask for vertical direction. Exterior timber tubes and exterior fluted panels give that, as a screen or as a full face.
No strong lines. A plain box with few openings can take a relief look, such as rough-cut rock or stacked ashlar in PU stone, because the surface itself supplies the interest.

Check where one look stops and the next begins. A crisp break at a corner, a window return or a change of plane looks planned. A break in the middle of an open wall looks accidental.

Daylight, evening light and one accent

Judge every sample twice: in strong daylight and again in the evening light your building will actually have. Relief looks, such as PU stone and 3D stone, gain shadow in low sun and flatten at midday. Flatter textures, such as clay, depend more on colour, so check the shade in both lights.

Then decide the structure of the elevation. Pick one main field that covers most of the area. Pick one accent for the entrance, a feature wall or a gate. Anything beyond that is usually clutter from the street.

Main field: the look that suits the longest sightline.
Accent: the look that marks the entrance or the focal point.
Edges: where the field ends, keep the break at a corner or a change of plane.

Colour comes after that. Choose the family and the scale first, then the shade. A shade chosen early often forces a poor choice of texture.

See the samples at the Choolai showroom

Façade materials are the hardest to judge from a screen. Come to the Inlife Experience Centre, 2 Baker Street, Choolai, Chennai. We are open Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 8 pm.

Bring an elevation drawing or a few phone photographs of the building from the street, the gate and the entrance. Bring the approximate area in sq ft for the main field. Note the lines you want to follow or hide.

At the showroom, take each sample outside into daylight and hold it at arm's length, then step back as far as you can. That is closer to how the street will see it. Place two families next to each other to see how they meet at a corner.

You can build a sample box of up to 12 samples. View them at the showroom, ask for catalogues on WhatsApp, or have samples sent to your office if it is in Chennai. Samples are sent to offices in Chennai only.

Questions people ask

How do I choose between clay, stone-look and timber cladding for a façade?

Start with distance and the building's lines. Clay suits broad planes, stone-look and PU stone suit relief on a defined block, and timber suits strong horizontal or vertical direction.

Can I use more than one cladding look on a single façade?

Yes, as long as one look is the main field and the others are accents. Let each change of material fall on a corner or a change of plane.

What are the common exterior wall cladding materials shown at Inlife?

Clay textures, clay stone finish, flexible brick, polyclay, PU stone panels, 3D stone panels, natural wood cladding, exterior timber tubes and exterior fluted panels.

Which façade cladding looks suit curves and columns?

Flexible brick, clay textures, clay stone finish and polyclay cladding are shown for curves, columns or compound walls.

How should I judge a façade sample before choosing?

View it in daylight and in evening light, from arm's length and from as far back as you can stand. Compare two families side by side at a corner.